Rehoboth Police educate community on substance abuse

27 Feb 2017 15:20pm

REHOBOTH, 27 FEB (NAMPA)  Members of the Namibian Police Force (NamPol) in Rehoboth on Sunday staged a drama to give residents an understanding of the effects of drug and alcohol abuse on individuals and the community at large.
The event took place at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia Ebenhaezer Congregation.
Warrant Officer Dinerou Karuchas told the audience that drug and alcohol abuse destroys families and contributes to the escalation of domestic and gender-based violence.
While women are usually the immediate victims of gender violence fuelled by substance abuse; the consequences of gender violence extend beyond the victim to society as a whole, she said.
Karuchas said violence threatens family structures; children suffer emotional damage when they watch their mothers and sisters being abused.
Psychological scars also often impede the establishment of healthy and rewarding relationships in future, she said.
Victims of gender violence might also vent their frustrations on their children and others, thereby transmitting and intensifying the negative experiences of those around them, Karuchas said.
Karuchas said while those who abuse substances are blamed, the dealers who sell such substances should also shoulder some of the blame.
People sometimes resort to selling their belongings just to get a fix and later even become homeless, she said.
Sergeant Jacqueline Xamses-Windstaan of the Community Policing Division also said women are more at risk of suffering through drug related violence.
She said a lot of the time, the womens partners are unemployed and the women have to fund their bad habits.
If there is no money for drugs or alcohol, the women are assaulted.
They (women) go to the police station and report the incident, just to withdraw it after a day or two saying the man somehow helps around the house and it is tough seeing their childrens father in jail, she said.
Xamses-Windstaan urged residents to report crimes fuelled by substance abuse so the police can deal with the culprits.
She also asked that they report substance abuse and people who sell drugs.
(NAMPA)
RG/AS/ND